Through The Viewfinder: A Different Perspective On Innovation

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Oftentimes when I am walking through the city, I grab my phone and click
a picture. Typically, I’m trying to capture a moment or a memory for later. But
recently I’ve started noticing that just looking through that lens alters the
way I think about – and even approach – whatever I’m experiencing. It got me
thinking about the critical role perspective plays in just about everything in
life.

In my role, I have the privilege to meet many of the most innovative
people in my company and hear their ideas. While many of them fall within
typical innovation roles – R&D, product development, etc. – many of the
most innovative ideas come from people who approach innovation from an entirely
different perspective. Strong ideas have come from people in project
management, human resources, legal counsel, finance and many other teams not
traditionally known for innovation. It has taught me the power of engaging all
of our potential innovators – especially those employees who approach
innovation through a much different lens.

Part of the role of an innovation leader is to create an environment
where employees from all perspectives can have a voice and platform to share
and execute their ideas – and then celebrate and spotlight their efforts.

In this spirit, I have spent significant time considering:

How can we best foster widespread employee
engagement in our innovation efforts? How can we engage employees at all levels, job
roles and geographies to ensure we are capturing the full potential of our
innovative talent? Two years ago, we launched a fund to provide seed money and
support to pilot early stage ideas from across the organization. We continue to
evolve that and other efforts to truly engage the breadth and depth of our
organization.

How can we ignite our customer-facing staff’s
passion to help drive our innovation efforts? It sounds obvious, but customers must
be in the center of our innovation efforts. Our customer-facing staff provides
the window to our customers, providing a perspective that can’t be matched
elsewhere in the organization. How can we work hand-in-glove with these teams
to craft new experiences, products and operations that drive the next big
thing?

Can we shift our lens to focus on some markets that
are ripe for transformation? Is the next big opportunity akin to Uber, AirBnB or
even Amazon before them, where the ticket to their success was in disrupting
industries that had been stuck in the past?
Rather than looking at the next breakthrough technology and retrofitting
it to an industry, is our next breakthrough a far more foundational shift to a
marketplace or business model?

None of this is to say that there isn’t a place for the more traditional
R&D and other innovation teams. To the contrary, they become even more
critical in helping make new ideas reality and they must be properly supported,
funded and celebrated. However, I believe that the healthiest organizations also
acknowledge and nurture the people (partners, customers and employees alike)
who approach their roles and contributions with a keen focus on innovating. We
can do this by empowering, supporting, incubating and highlighting the people
who are gutsy enough to share and deliver on new ideas that only they can see.